If You Could Have Seen Me a Year Ago
by Bolinlover123
Summary: A year ago, she was in the South Pole practising for her Firebending test to follow her path as the Avatar. A year ago, he and his brother were street rats, fighting to survive in the streets of Republic City. Fate brought them together. Now Mako's never been so sure he has a future. He finally knows it's all been worth it.


_"It's all so crazy. A few months ago I was in the South Pole practicing for my Firebending test. Now I'm in the middle of an all-out war."_

_"I know. And we didn't even know each other then. And now...I can't imagine my life without you in it."_

Six months later, he was now a Police Officer, trying his best to protect the innocent civilians from the looming threat of Triple Threat and other gangs.

But a year ago, he had been among those gang members. He and his brother, in it, fighting just to survive.

He hadn't trusted them. He hadn't been loyal to them. He hadn't called them a part of his "family" like the oath made them all swear to. And that refusal and been paid with his blood.

What he had been, however, was dependent on them.

He and Bolin were the lucky ones. They got out. Most never do; they die trying.

Toza was literally their savior.

If Korra had come to the city a few months earlier, she never would have met them, because the Fire Ferrets would not have existed yet. They had only been in Probending for three mouths when fate brought Korra to them.

A year ago, he had promised Bolin that they wouldn't be on the streets for his sixteenth birthday. However, that promise went painstakingly in vain. The taste of cake, forgotten, and the meaning of a "Happy" birthday, unable to be felt at true meaning for nearly forever. The refusal of songs sung to each other, on each of their given birthdays-neither brother wanting to be sung to, but insisting that the other deserved the cheery tune if nothing else- was an endless, futile argument between them that neither of them wanted to have. Eventually, Bolin insisted when he was thirteen, that they just shouldn't celebrate their birthdays anymore; after he saw Mako work extra shifts for a week just to get him a cupcake, and then Toe-Toed Ping set it on fire, earning the gangster a scar threading his left eyebrow from a furious Mako.

A year ago, they had been starving to death. Street rats, them against the world. Blood, sweat, tears and empty stomachs; all more ingrained in them than how to read a simple sentence. All knobby limbs and protruding ribs against ripped shirts.

No future.

A year ago, they were lucky if they woke up the next day; his biggest fear that Bolin would be cold and lifeless next to him like so many others littering the alleys that they had to painfully turn their eyes away from. The image of Bolin's dead fingers woven into his red scarf, green eyes staring ahead, but unseeing just like his parents',was enough to force him to do what he had to, even if it meant staying with a gang.

A year ago, they had no future.

Now, a year later, after their Gaurdian Spirit in the form of Toza rescued them, and gave them a life and shelter with Probending, and after meeting Korra, and helping her save the city and fighting Amon...

After finnaly realizing he could allow himself to feel love for another person besides his brother, after telling himself he could trust her because she wouldn't turn his back on him and betray him like so many others...

After willing to die for her, and slowly coming to realization what this feeling meant...

After he said "I love you" to her...

He realized he had a future now.

He realized that he could actually be someone now, and actually look ahead to have a future stretch in front of him-instead of it being limited to the grimy end of an alley wall where his life lay.

He realized that this was his life now, and that it had all changed in a year.

He was a Cop now, and he had never been so sure that this was the right choice. Even if some other Police Men looked at him like he was crazy for working alongside them, when they themselves had dragged his and Bolin's mangy little butts inside these bars many times throughout the years.

A year ago, he was a nothing. Had felt like he would always be a nothing.

A year ago, he was a shell, only cracking to let Bolin hide inside him.

But now, a year later, he is a new man. He is vindicated. And it scares the crud out of him to think about the difference in-between what he is now, and once was.

But Bolin is alive and happy, and Korra returns his kisses with no ulterior motives; no exchange for money that will let them eat for the next few days if he gives some girls some kisses.

No, Korra loves him for who he is, no matter how broken.

A year ago, he could not comprehend how he had survived to see seventeen, with his little brother still breathing beside him.

And now, he had a future. He had a passion. He had a new meaning.

And he was determined to show them all how far he's come, because he was a _somebody_ now.

He could see his future as clear as day. And Mako knew, somehow, all the suffering had been worth it. If only to see his brother continue to smile and laugh and hug him and be a wonderful person, and Korra continue to be strong and beautiful and gaze at him with a look only for him.

If only he could have known all this a year ago. The person he used to be was terrifying.

_Yes,_ Mako thinks as he fingers his gleaming Police badge, and looks out at his brother and Korra, laughing and playing with Pabu and Naga in the waves at the bottom of the Island's shore,_ I am free._

_We made it, Bo. We're finally free._


End file.
